Link : http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/11/a-wonderful-visual-outlining-7-steps-of.html

Link: http://www.slideshare.net/kokilavaaninarayanan/the-importance-of-puppets

Advantages of puppets.

1. According to Jean Piaget, puppet plays helps young children develop creative and cognitive skills by forcing them to use their imaginations. They make up the roles, the rules, the situations and the solutions. It is through imaginative way that children come to understand the differences between fantasy and reality.

2. Puppets can encourage the quietest of children to start talking. Puppets can break down barriers and provide an effective means to initiate communication. The young child trusts the puppet and doesn’t feel threatened by it, making it a perfect neutral medium through which they can discuss sensitive issues.

3 Puppets can assist young children with special educational needs. They can motivate and support children with difficulties in communication and interaction. They can help to develop their social and motor skills, and can meet the visual, tactile and emotion needs of the individual child.

4. Puppets provide an essential link between learning and play which makes them wonderful teaching tools for at home, preschools, classrooms, and in the wider community.

Disadvantages of puppets.

1. It can overstress. The hand puppets can say things that might seem offensive if spoken by a person. A hostile or hateful hand puppets can more easily be made wrong or be made to change his or her mind.

2. It could be backfire. Young children may see the hand puppets and react negatively towards them. Seeing the hand puppets may distract the young children or cause them to not pay attention to what the hand puppet is saying because they are too busy focusing on the hand puppets movement and the way the hand puppets look.

Link:

http://www.kellybear.com/TeacherArticles/TeacherTip69.html

1. When children seem restless, have them stand and do exercises. Ask them to stretch slowly, do arm circles, sway, touch toes, hop, bend, jump, jog, etc.

2. Have students march in place as they count by 2, 5, or 10, recite the ABC’s, say the multiplication tables, etc.

3. Have a contest between the girls and boys. Ask the children to follow you as you run in place. When you stop, see which group of children stops first (boys or girls) and name them. Then begin to run again, stop running and comment on which group was the first to stop.

4. Have the students do two things at once. Examples: tap their heads and rub their stomachs, clap their hands and stand on one foot, snap their fingers and nod their heads, do jumping jacks, etc.

5. Have them do crossover exercises such as: touch their left elbow to the right knee and then do the reverse. Or, have your students hold their arms out in front, cross arms at the wrist area, turn their palms down and in toward each other, clasp fingers together, pull clasped hands under and up through their arms in front of their chest and reverse the action. For another exercise, ask them to put their right index finger and thumb on their nose, and touch their right ear with their left index finger and thumb. Say, “When I say ‘change!’ reverse the position of your hands.” Each of these may be done several times.

6. Sing or say, “Head, shoulders, knees and toes,” as follows:

“Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.
Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.
Eyes and ears, and mouth and nose.
Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.”

Have the children touch the body part as it is named. You can substitute names of different body parts for the third line, such as, “neck and hips and knees and cheeks.” Start off slowly and increase speed as you sing it over and over.

Link : 

https://www.google.com.my/search?q=definition+of+storytelling&oq=definition+of+storytelling&gs_l=serp.3...35577.59387.0.59527.103.32.0.0.0.0.2541.6424.0j3j0j1j0j1j9-2.7.0....0...1c.1.57.serp..98.5.1344.0.wDAEWjV38r8

Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, and images, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, and instilling moral values. Storytelling in simple points :

1. Storytelling is interactive.

2. It uses words.

3. It uses actions such as vocalization, physical movement and/or gesture. 

4. Storytelling presents a story (a narrative).

5. Storytelling encourages the active imagination of the listeners.

Link :

http://blog.bufferapp.com/science-of-storytelling-why-telling-a-story-is-the-most-powerful-way-to-activate-our-brains

Why Storytelling? This is because our brain works better when listening to a story. If we listen to a Powerpoint presentation with boring bullet points, certain parts in the brain get activated. Overall, it hits our language processing parts in the brain, where we decode words into meaning. And that’s it, nothing else happens.

But in storytelling, it activate your creative imaginary capability. Not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated,but any other area in our brain that we would use when experiencing the events of the story are too. A story can put your whole brain to work.

Last but not least, when we tell stories to others that have helped us shape our thinking and way of life, we can have the same effect on them too. The brains of the person telling a story and listening to it, can synchronize.

1. When they show interest while listening to music or watch any video consist of musics and movement.

2. When they show improvement in learning and the results of their work.

3. When they actively participate in your class when you are using videos or musics to teach the kids.

4. When they give positive response to your teaching for example answering your questions or sing along with the video that you're showing.

5. When they give their full attention to learning lesson.

Link :

http://www.storyteller.net/articles/296

1. You need to tell stories that you like.

Choose a story you like. Choose a story that you can understand and enjoy.

2. Take the time to prepare.

Don’t just dive into telling a story you have heard only once. Break the story into parts. 

3. Do not hesitate to remove the slow parts of your story.

Ask yourself, "Do I need to tell this piece of the story this time? Is it critical?"

4. Use a strong and confident voice.

Speak with clarity and confidence. Enunciate and project your voice towards the listeners.

5. Use good pacing

Speak slow enough so that the story is easily absorbed by the audience but 

do not speak so slowly that their minds check out of the room.

6. Do not pass on the microphone.

In almost all cases, you will need to use a microphone. The most seasoned speaker might get away without a microphone for groups under 25 folks.

7. Use eye-contact with your listeners.

Your eye contact is a gift to the listener. It always amazes me how a fleeting moment of eye contact can make an audience member come to me and say, "I felt like you were talking to me personally."

8. Make your gestures easy and calm.

Your gestures should be natural and relaxed. Take the time to decide these ahead of time.

9. Avoid the "moral of the story" finishes.

Storytelling is a most effective way to teach with story. Let the story speak to the audience in its own way and skip the need to tell them what to think.

Link : 

http://www.libsci.sc.edu/storytelling/techniques/collinspuppethanout.pdf

Using a puppet to tell a story is a wonderful technique that can lead children to discover the joy of literature and learning. Puppets can be used “anyway, anywhere, and anytime” to bring stories to life and to spark young imaginations. It doesn’t take a professional puppeteer or an expensive puppet to make storytelling with puppets “work.” Puppets can be made out of anything from catalogs to paper cups, and from envelopes to plastic straws. If you use your imagination, the possibilities are almost endless. Even the simplest, hand-made puppet can be thrilling for a young child. Telling stories with puppets can also be a terrific technique for new storytellers. Knowing that the audience is focusing on the puppet can help a beginning storyteller to relax and have more fun with their stories. The art of storytelling is about bringing stories to life, and puppets provide us with a great way to do just that.

Link: http://www.education.com/reference/article/music-center-enhance-children-development/?page=2

Children develop musical skills and appreciation as they interact in the music center. While participating in music activities, children are also enhancing physical, language, social-emotional, and cognitive development. In today’s world of high-stakes tests, many are using music’s enhancement of cognitive development as a rationale for including music in the curriculum. However, as stated by Hetland and Winner (2001), “The arts are a fundamentally important part of culture, and an education without them is an impoverished education leading to an impoverished society. Studying the arts should not have to be justified in terms of anything else. The arts are as important as the sciences: they are time-honored ways of learning, knowing, and expressing”

a) Social Development

Music links children to their cultural heritage, assisting them to acquire cultural beliefs and values. Listening to music also exposes children to other times and cultures and provides the opportunity to gain appreciation for them. In addition, as children create music together, they engage in a metaphorical experience, where different instruments combine to make a unique sound that no individual instrument could produce. Through this process, they learn that to make beautiful music, you must have unity and work together.

b) Cognitive Development

Singing relevant songs can help children to learn science, math, and language concepts (Miche, 2002). History and geography can also be enhanced by examining the music of the time period or geographic area. Music can also assist with memorization. When items to be memorized are set to music, children remember them more readily (Sawyers & Hutson-Brandhagen, 2004).

c) Physical Development

As children create music, they improve fine motor skills(physicals), coordination, and rhythm. Music also entices one to move and dance. Participating in movement or dance activities while listening to music enhances children’s ability to sequence sound, recognize and respond to rhythm patterns, and discriminate melodies (Ferguson, 2005). As children dance to music, they increase coordination, flexibility, and motor skills. They develop body awareness and self-confidence. Like music, dance is an art form and a means of communication. Through dance, children communicate feelings, thoughts, and cultural values and beliefs.

Link :

http://www.wikihow.com/Conduct-a-Group-Musical-Activity-for-Children

http://www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/WhatsNew/WNDet/TabId/270/ArtMID/888/ArticleID/390/Get-Your-Students-Moving.aspx

A. Musical Activity

1. Give  a child one instrument from the assortment you bring

2. Ensure that the first song the group sings is a fast-packed one to peak their interest in participation

3. After a slower song, follow up with a more physical number (get on your feet song).

4. Follow this with a song of moderate rhythm to allow to rest a little in what is probably a midpoint of the activity.

5. Try to include a marching number towards the end when the attention span begins to wane.

6. End the group sing-a-long with a sit-down song of moderate pace. Make eye contact with each child and leave them with an enjoyable impression of the activity.

7. After the singing session, invite the children to color pictures relating to one or more of the songs

B. Movement Activity

As a 20-year veteran middle school teacher, I learned very early in my career that if you don’t physically move middle school students sometime during your lesson or class time, they will move you in ways you wish you could forget. Providing students an opportunity to move is critical to your survival, as well as to helping your students stay engaged throughout your lesson.

Brain research tells us that students can actively listen to their teachers for as many minutes as their age. That means, for a middle school student, 15 minutes is about the longest time they will sit still and listen before they need to get up and move.

The Ground Rules

1. Be purposeful in how you move your students. Plan carefully: When will it happen, how will it happen, how long will it take, and how will you refocus them?
2. Anticipate the challenges. Is there enough room for the activity you have planned? Can you see all the students while they are moving? Do certain students need to be watched closely?
3. Plan how to direct your students back to you and to the lesson. Will you play music, ring a bell, blow a whistle? Did you teach your students what to do when they hear the sound (stop what they are doing, close their mouths, and place eyes on you)?
4. Have a back-up plan if the activity fails to meet your expectations.Will you adopt the mantra of “If the movement creates problems, I will never let them move again”? Or will you recognize that students may need to be retaught what is expected of them when they are allowed to move?

Taking the time to consider these ground rules will help you maintain your sanity and help your students stay focused and engaged in the lesson.